The Arizona sentinel., 1887-04-30
Description Of the Colo
 rado and CiIa Canal.

tive tracing of the country embraced within the operations of the proposed Colorado and Gila Canal; showing the cours? ofeach waterway to their june tion, the division of the land in accor dance with the United States survey, and the source and termination at the boundary line, of the suggested system of irrigation.
 The Colorado and Gila rivers have their confluence at Yuma. The course of the Colorado river, looking up stream from this point, is North easterly for some D miles, and then turns to the North, while that of the Gfla Is almost due East. Some Is miles above Yuma commences a range of hilly country fattening out at It's sides into table-lands, and ths range separates the two valleys until thy finally diverge at right angles. Be tween this point md Yuma both val levs join and merge into one, cut, from East to West, Ly the channel of tie Gila river.
 The proposed canal will head on the Gila rlvcr, Is miles above Yuma, and be carried along the edge of the table lands bordering the Gila valley on the South, as far as the boundary line separa rg Arizona from Sonora, Mexico. The Colorado branch Of thr canal will head at a point about 2C miles above Yuma, and will be carried around the hilly country above allad ed to, across the Gila rlver through pipes, until 1t effects a junction with the main canal into which it will pouI it's waters. Between these two cours es of water supply and Yuma, the Col orado branch will irrigate all the land lying west, between the Colorado ant Gila rivers, and the main branch frod the Gila will irrigate the lands em braced by the table-lands on the Soutl and the Gila river on the North, mak ing fully 25,0OO acres above Yuma subject to redemption. Below Yuma all the land between the line of table lands and the Colorado river, as far as the Mexican boundary line, will L' reclaimed some 10000 acres, and | branch canal carried on to the table lands W l. redeem G0,000 acres more A grand total, in Arizona, of l54, ,OOl acres of as fine land as was ever known.
 IT this canal can he carried on int, Sonora by concession from the :Iexi can government, it will make produc tive what is estimated at 100000 acres of land.
 The cost of this canal system, iron it's source to the boundary line, ] roughly approximate at 100000 dollars.
 The width of the canal, on the bot tom, should be no less thln 40 feet.
 The main branch of tn. canal head, on the Gila river at point where the valley is contracted by the surround ing tahle-lands into narrow canyon. and the grade of the river-bsd, is com paratively, steep. The Colorado branch heads opposite Stevsnson's Is land, rocky protuberance which rear. its head above the surface of the wa terS in mid-channeI of the Colorad river. This Is the only point on this river. for a great many miles, from which an irrigatlng canal can be talk en, owing to the fact that there i, such a slight fall to the river 1t neces. sitates many miles of impracticallj expensive work before the water can be brought to the surface of the land. Stevenson's Island, above alluded to, acts as a dam to the waters, raising their surface several feet, from the level of which the river rushes with tremendous forcessand rapidity. In a distance of less than SIX hundred feet there is 2 fall of fnlly four feet From this point the taking ont the propos d canal is not only practicable but com tparatively simple and an incxpensi, e matter.
 The advantages of having the Colo rado branch, not only lies in the in creased quantity of land made subject to redemption, but it will form a mos important factor in furnishing tha necessary water supply owing to a peculiar providence of Nature. The high-water periods of the Colorado and Gila rivers alternate-.ke former having its greatest rise in Summer